Chapter 31
Breakfast in éljúenir smelled like every good morning Linnea had ever had and a few she had only dreamed about.
The long tables were heaped with black bread and butter, soft cheese, eggs, platters of smoked ham (at least she hoped it was ham), and bowls of berries.
She came in beside Fenris, scrubbed and dressed and absolutely determined to act normal.
She made it four steps before someone wolf-whistled.
From the head of the table, Hel took one glance at the pair of them, and her delighted smile was brighter than a sunrise.
"Well, well, well," the goddess of the underworld called. "Good morning, big brother. You look rested."
"Thanks. I slept fine," Fenris said, ignoring her bait.
"I'm sure you did. Eventually." Hel buttered a slab of bread without breaking eye contact.
"I built this hall for the silent dead, you understand.
They are restful and quiet company and don't ever keep the entire east wing awake.
" She took a serene bite. "I may have to soundproof the guest rooms before your next visit, little singer. You have a remarkable range."
Heat went up Linnea's neck and straight into her hairline. Beside her, Fenris flipped off his sister, and the rest of the table erupted in cheers and catcalls.
"I knew it." Layla pointed at them with the tip of her knife. "Last night I said, ‘Those two are going to bang the guest bed to pieces tonight,’ and Ciara was all 'Give it another day.' Ha! I love being right."
"It was hardly a competition, baby cousin. It was the single most obvious thing in any of the Nine Realms. I foolishly assumed that Fenris would behave under his sister's roof," Ciara replied.
"Like they behaved under mine?" Tor added with a grin.
Arne gave Tor's braid a tug. "You aren't as intimidating as the goddess of the underworld."
"Oh, shut up, all of you," Linnea told them, which they ignored entirely.
"You all should be ashamed of yourselves.
Come, sit with me and ignore them all." Von slid down the bench, took Linnea by the arm, and reeled her in to sit beside him.
His mouth went to her ear and whispered, "As soon as we are alone, I want every dirty detail, and you aren't to leave out the size of anything.
If you don't hold anything back, I promise you will drink free for life at Ritual. "
"Von—" she began, but he had already started piling her plate with boiled eggs.
"You must eat all your eggs, darling, you must be famished. You need your strength for our journey today."
Tor stared at Fenris. "She's my little sister, so if you so much as make her frown, I don't care if you grow your hairy ass nine feet tall, I'll find a way to kick it."
"Noted," Fenris replied gravely.
"He's lying," Arne said. "He got weepy at our mating party. He loves love."
"Fuck you. I didn't cry. If I did, it was tears of joy that someone else was now in charge of looking after you," Tor shot back.
Arne turned to Linnea. "Ignore them all, little sister. I, for one, am simply happy that you both look happy. That's worth more than all of Hel's bad jokes."
"Fuck off, elfling. My jokes are exquisitely crafted for maximum hilarity," Hel called out in mock outrage.
Under the table, Fenris's knee found Linnea's and pressed there, warm and reassuring. She kept her face arranged as the long-suffering sibling while the family pelted her and Fenris with cheerful abuse over the breakfast bowls.
She reached for the cloudberries, her hand brushing Fenris's as he beat her to them. He served a spoonful onto her plate with a wink before doing the same with the maybe-ham and some bread. As they ate, he hooked his littlest finger through hers below the table where no one could see.
"You have that look," Von said, chin propped on one hand. "The dazed, satisfied one of pure happiness. I had that look once. Glorious man, terrible decision. Would do it again."
"I do not have a look," Fenris replied.
"You're smug as shit and more so than usual, my friends." Von stole a cloudberry off Linnea's plate. "It suits you both, but my little witch most of all. You have spent the entire time I have known you bracing for the next bad thing. Now you're like a little flower bud finally opening her petals."
That landed a blow Linnea didn't see coming. He always did that, buried a true thing in nonsense so you only caught it moments later.
Linnea kissed Von's cheek in reply and let herself enjoy the moment.
She ate too much, laughed at Layla trying to explain the current baby name debate over the newest fae prince, and let Fenris keep her fingers tangled with his under the table like a teenager.
For the length of one breakfast, she was not a volva walking into the trials of the dead.
She was only a girl at a loud table full of people who loved each other.
After they were all full and had re-stocked their food supplies, Hel walked them to the doors of her hall. The cold came back like a slap as soon as they stepped through the doors, and the bleak, frozen country of Niflheim stretched gray and silent in every direction.
Hel led them past the carved black doors and out onto the wide open plain, flat and pale and going on forever under a low ashen sky. She lifted one tattooed hand and pointed.
"There," she declared, her smile widening. "Make for the river. That is where the fun really begins."
Far out across the plain, so far Linnea had to squint, a bright line of silver, narrow as a thread, caught the light.
The plain had been empty yesterday. She had looked out at it from the forest last night and seen nothing but flat, dead ground all the way to the horizon. No shine, no water, no silver thread.
"That wasn't there before," she said before she could bite her tongue.
Hel laughed, bright but kind of evil at the same time. "The road through the trials only opens when the travelers are ready, not before."
"You are enjoying this far too much," Von commented.
"I am! Watching you lot blunder about is going to be the best entertainment I've had in centuries," the goddess said and pinched his cheek. "If you die, I'm keeping you just so you know."
"I would be honored," Von replied, removing her hand from his cheek and kissing it.
"Go on, then, get lost, all of you." Hel's grin came back, but it had teeth in it now, fond and frightening at once. She caught Fenris's face in both hands and kissed his brow one more time, hard, and let him go. "Don't do anything dumb, and please find Dad as soon as you can. No dilly dallying."
"I'll try. I have never once dillyed or dallyed," Fenris replied, and she rolled her eyes at him.
With a final goodbye, they started across the plain toward the silver line, adjusting their packs and falling into a loose formation.
Behind them, Hel's voice rang out across the dead country, bright and clear and carrying.
"Sing well, little singer!" the goddess called. "Sing for your lives!"
Fenris's hand tightened around Linnea's, and neither of them looked back. There was only one way out of there, and it was through the trials and out the other side.